Olympic chief refutes that the games are 'stymied'

Last updated at 13:02 05 December 2006

The bitter row over the state of London's preparations for the 2012 Olympics deepened today.

Sir Roy McNulty, acting chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, hit back at claims from his predecessor, Jack Lemley, that the project has been stymied by long-known land contamination problems and political meddling.

He stated that the ODA board, responsible for delivering Olympic infrastructure and venues, "does not accept the version of events that Jack Lemley has set out to the media in recent days".

Sir Roy said he was confident the ODA would soon have a "robust and realistic budget" after talks with the Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) end in the New Year.

He said: "The ODA board would also like to make it clear that we have seen no signs of unreasonable pressure from DCMS and Treasury to cut costs.

"Of course there has been challenge, as there should be, but the only reductions made to the May figures have been those which the ODA and Locog (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) have identified as achievable."

Mr Lemley claimed that Culture Secretary and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and London Mayor Ken Livingstone repeatedly ignored his warnings that the budget for the Games was spiralling out of control.

The American engineer also said his fears over the chemical contamination of the Olympic site were also dismissed because the Government only wanted to hear "good news".

The first flashpoint is the much-needed land remediation at the Olympic site in Stratford, east London, before building work can begin.

Sir Roy said: "He has, for example, presented the issue of land remediation of the Olympic Park site as though this were a new discovery for the project. It is not.

"The Stratford site is complex and much of the land will need remediating before construction. This was known from the very start of the bid process."

An expert team, the same team which successfully worked on the Greenwich Peninsula, have been doing soil investigation work at the site over recent months.

According to Sir Roy: "At the September board meeting chaired by Mr Lemley there was a detailed presentation from these contractors. They indicated that levels of contamination assessed to date are in line with expectations and that the time allowed for remediation appears to be adequate.

"At the same meeting, Mr Lemley registered some of his concerns but admitted he had not seen or read any of the data or reports from the contractors."

Last month, Ms Jowell told MPs the cost of London's 2012 Olympic Park has soared by £900 million, up from £2.375 billion to £3.3 billion.

Ms Jowell's figures exclude the cost of regenerating the Lower Lea Valley around the Olympic Park, put at more than £1 billion.

This is where 40,000 homes are to be built and excludes the Treasury's demand for a 60 per cent contingency fund in case of construction overruns.

Sir Roy said: "As has been widely acknowledged, the financing requirement for the overall programme will be higher for reasons that have been explained. Mr Lemley will know that costs have not been rising exponentially.

"Indeed, since May, the Olympic Delivery Authority has been working in partnership with the DCMS, the Treasury and Locog to bear down on costs through the review instigated by Government post Singapore.

"Given the sums of public money under discussion, this was always going to take time to resolve."

The timetable for works is on schedule, according to Sir Roy

Another bone of contention is the compulsory purchase order needed to get ownership of the land for the Olympics.

Despite Mr Lemley's "frustration" over this system, Sir Roy vowed: "We however will not ride roughshod over local communities.

"Their support was invaluable in helping to win the Games and we must treat them fairly and take them with us as we move forward.

"There is due process in this country and we will respect it."

Mr Lemley, 71, quit as ODA chairman in October, claiming he wanted to spend more time at home in the US on his business interests. He later said that spiralling costs and political interference had been the true cause.

Mr Lemley, nicknamed The Terminator for his no-nonsense style, has never before quit on a building project. He ran the Anglo-French group which designed and built the £8 billion Channel Tunnel.

He quit his Olympic post just seven months into a four-year contract.

His outburst sparked fears that the Olympics could be heading for a Wembley-style fiasco.